In today's Telegraph
Sir - So Gordon Brown wishes to create a home-owning, share-owning democracy (News, September 26). Perhaps he would care to reduce the penal rate of inheritance tax. There seems no point in owning houses or shares if 40 per cent of the value goes back to the Treasury.
Owen Smith, Brockenhurst, Hants
Forget for a moment the debatable point whether Gordon Brown meant he wants to encourage share-ownership amongst those who have assets over the inheritance threshold, I don't understand the logic. Most people are buying shares, and houses, not to give to their descendants, when they are dead, but to live in and to provide a pension when they are no longer working.
I wonder whether Mr Smith is a pensioner? If so this has not been the best week for our older generation. They refuse to pay taxes when they are alive, and they refuse to pay them when they are dead.
posted by Matthew @ 9/27/2005 04:20:00 PM
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